Several artists have added their distinctive visual and narrative threads to Spider-Man's web of stories over the years. Depending on the era you started reading the webhead, Todd Mcfarlane, Mark Bagley, or John Romita Jr might have been the artist that visually defined your version of Spidey. If you started reading before that, every artist was making their best attempt to ape John Romita Sr's signature style. However, one of the most forgotten names in Spider-Man's roster of creative talent is the first artist on the book: Steve Ditko.
In any Stan Lee interview where he romantically expounds on how he created Spider-Man, you'll notice that Steve Ditko's name rarely ever finds its way into the conversation. There's a good reason for that. In Ditko's version of the story, Lee was a superfluous figure in developing the character at best and a creative hindrance at worst. I'm not going to take sides on the issue, but it's interesting to note the lengths that Marvel has taken to eulogize Ditko after his death. It seems vaguely apologetic to me.
With the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is well on its way to a billion dollars at the box office, I think it's important to remember the first and arguably most important creator in the Wall Crawler's legacy. In the video linked above, the BBC's Jonathan Ross gives viewers a better understanding of Steve Ditko.
